Hey everyone first post here just signed up at the recommendation of a member of the forum I met today.

Ok im just looking for advice on transitioning in Scotland and how getting HRT works on the NHS I have looked around and haven't found very much in the way of straight facts or precise information. I have been to see my GP and I told him about my gender issues, also that I would like to do something about it and he told me that he would look into who to contact and id hear back from someone. He said it could take around two months but he never gave me much in the way of information or even what he was doing really.

I guess what im asking is, is there any way to speed up seeing someone about this getting to see a gender therapist should I re-contact my doctor and ask him more specifics about it. Im just very unsure and am looking for some advice.

Thanks, Victoria.

A big warm welcome to the family Victoria!! I am across the pond, but from what we hear in this family is the NHS is a total nightmare. Someone from your area will be here to help you more than I can. 

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I'm not sure exactly about Scotland, I'm in England, but seeing as it's still the nhs I would imagine the process is similar.

Basically your doctor needs to refer you to a GIC. To do this you have to go to a one off, hour long session with a psychiatrist who will then either support your referral or recommend a different course of action if he/she thinks there's underlying issues. Depression is not one of those issues if it's caused by your gender dysphoria, so don't worry about it, it's fairly straight forward.

After that your gp will take blood tests and probably request an examination of your genitals, but you don't have to do that if you don't want. Then they can write a letter with the psychiatrists supporting letter to the GIC.

After that, in England at least, there's a fair wait before anything happens. You'll most likely get a letter saying you're on a waiting list. Once you finally get an appointment you'll have an assessment period of at least two months but potentially much longer depending on what stage of your transition you are at. If you have transitioned socially and at work and are doing ok then the assessment period will be shorter, but if you are at the stage where you are still in the closet and trying to figure out whether you want to transition or not then it will take a lot more appointments. At the end of the assessment period they will either make a diagnosis of 'transsexualism' or send you back to your gp.

If you get the diagnosis, you are then on the care pathway, and they'll work out a treatment plan with you. Again this all depends on your circumstances. They won't prescribe hormones until you've been living full time as your preferred gender for at least 6 months. Surgery comes after 2 years full time.

I was referred in June last year, and had my first appointment at the GIC in June this year. I went full time last November and started hormones privately in February. This meant my assessment period was only 2 sessions.

It is slow, and after that first referral you are basically left on your own for a bit, but you can always ask your doc if there is any kind of counselling available, even if it's not gender specific. Once I actually got to the GIC (Leeds in my case) the people there have been great and not the evil gatekeepers is been warned about. Some people just have unrealistic expectations, they expect to be able to go along as a guy who isn't out to anyone and get hormones, then get angry when it doesn't happen.

Hope this helps, like I say it might be a bit different in Scotland.

So I will probably have to transition socially long before I even get prescribed hormones? I didn't realise that and the thought quite honestly scares me a lot.
Is there any way to change this and be able to take them before going through a huge social transition etc, like doing it privately or anything?

You can go private, I don't know what clinics there are in Scotland, I went to see Dr Curtis at Transhealth in London. It's expensive though, the first session alone will set you back £240. And there's no guarantee anyone will give you hormones, they'll have to be sure it's what they think is right for you first, and they'll probably want a second opinion.

Going full time without hormones scared me too, but I couldn't see any other way of continuing, and although the first few months were pretty rough (my confidence went from low to zero) I'm glad I did it.

There is one thing you can look into: I've been told that current guidelines suggest that GPs can prescribe bridging hormones. I'd expect these would be a low dose. I asked my own GP about it after I went full time and he flat out refused; he said it's too specialist an area and too big a risk for him to get involved in. I didn't look into it much more after that; guidelines are just that and the NHS doesn't have to follow them.

It's a tough and long process, there's lot's of hoops to jump through. The upside is it's free!